DD, the Dursleys, and Identifying with Muggles in Potterverse

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 158029

 
> Sydney:
> 
> Oooh, I think the power differential is much bigger than that. It's
> like Oscar Wilde making fun of a person with Down's Syndrome.  It
> wasn't funny to me, it was just sad.  
> 
> I didn't think much of that scene, but then, I've never liked the
> Dursleys scenes in general.  A lot of the pleasure I get from HP is
> how you can pretty much always see the point of view of everyone in
> the scene-- even if you don't agree with it, you feel it's coming from
> a human place and you understand their goals, and that gives her
> sequences a terrific improvisational vigor.  Even Voldemort I feel
> JKR's put effort into getting into his head and trying to 'act' him
> honestly.  The Dursleys are just plastic;  I wasn't surprised when JKR
> said Vernon was the character she most disliked in the series.  She
> never bothers to get into his head at all--  I mean, it's not like
> it's ridiculous for a muggle to be afraid of someone who can do magic.
>  I'd have an undercurrent of fear myself every time I dealt with a
> wizard, I think.  But, I don't know, I just don't feel JKR really
> engages with the fear as anything other than a joke, and that really
> holds the scenes back, I think.


Pippin:
I think this is one place where the change in Rowling's fortunes worked
against her. It's cheeky to poke fun at the middle class when you are poor 
and desperate and the only thing between you and the wolf
at the door is the dole. Doing it when the Dursleys' lifetime income wouldn't
be a drop in your personal bucket is something else. I wouldn't be
surprised if JKR had something a bit harsher in mind when she conceived
the scene and found she had to tone it down when she got there or
feel like a bully herself. Irony.

But we can see from the reactions on our own list that Dumbledore can't
chastise Muggles, even Muggles who deserve it, without undermining his
position as the WW's foremost champion of Muggle rights. If he feels,
as he says he does, that he has no right to sacrifice the rights of nameless
faceless innocents for Harry's happiness, then he can't afford personal
vengeance. The only methods available to him are the ones he would
prescribe to any other wizard who thought his family was being treated
badly by Muggles, and those methods would doubtless have resulted
in Harry being taken away from the Dursleys and the protection they
could provide. 

Sydney:
> 
> Plus, it's all over now.  It's like the boss coming in after a project
> has tanked and saying, 'well, you should have done this and that' and
> having a go at a pipsqueak manager.  Sure it's nice to see the
> pipsqueak manager squirm, but 9/10ths of me is thinking, gee, boss,
> and where were you when all this was going on, seeing as you appear to
> know everything and have all the power here?

Pippin:
What power does Dumbledore have? It amazes me that people who are
worried that Harry will sustain more psychological damage than
Dumbledore could straighten out with one of his little talks
do not see that the Dursleys have *already* sustained such damage, and
Dumbledore's little talks would be as effective as shouting instructions
at a hurricane. Vernon, in particular, seems to be holding on to the
crumbling edge of sanity by his fingernails. Sure, DD could scare him. 
We saw how much use that was with Riddle.

Phoenixgod:

I refuse to believe that leaving Harry with the Dursleys was the 
best of all possible worlds for a wizard of Dumbledore's power, 
skill, and age.  It might have been the best for the Cinderfella 
story JKR wants to say, but I don't buy it in a world of magic on 
the level we've seen in the story.

Pippin:
Then you refuse to believe  canon.
Voldemort or his servants have found their way into every magical
fortress and concealed stronghold we know of: Gringotts, Azkaban, 
Hogwarts, Godric's Hollow, Grimmauld Place, St Mungo's and the
Ministry itself. Even the fear of Dumbledore did not hold them off 
forever.  The mind link means that no disguise would have 
prevented a resurgent Voldemort from learning that Harry is alive. 

Pippin
> Tonks:
> 
> > I think of Muggles as those humans who don't see or don't want to 
> > see that there is a world outside of the world of matter as 
> > experienced by their 5 senses.  I see the WW as similar to the world 
> > of the mystic or the spiritual world.
> 
> 
> Sydney:
> 
> See, I think to a large extent this is how Rowling sees it, and it's
> fine on a symbolic level. 

Pippin:
I don't think she does,  because we have beings like Binns, who is 
absurdly in denial about any sort of unseen reality. Wizards are 
capable of experiencing as concrete things which we can only imagine,
 but it doesn't actually make them more spiritually aware. 
JKR has explained I think that magic is a metaphor for the
talents that some people have. 

Pippin